Fourths to john w



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 B. A. THOMAS. LAND PULVERIZER.

No. 539,153. I Patented May 14, 1895.

a: Norms mans ca, mom-Luna. yugnmafou n Ilrrs TATES BENJAMIN A. THOMAS,OF BARDWELL, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR OF THREE- FOURTHS TO JOHN W. TURK, WM.O. RAY, AND JOHN T. UTTERBAOK,

OF SAME PLACE.

LAN D-P U LVERIZER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Application filed August 15,1894:.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN A. THOMAS,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Bardwell, in the county ofOarlisle and State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Land-Pulverizers; and I do declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention,

\ such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertainsto make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon,which form apart of this specification.

My invention consists in a land pulverizer or combined harrow and clodcrusher, in which are combined many novel and valuable fea-' tures; inwhich the teeth or blades can be adj usted to enter the earth at thedesired depth, to suit the team, and in which when the pul verizer isloaded with a heavy weight to adapt it to crush hard clods it will notsink the teeth in the earth deeper than they have been gaged to enter,nor greatly increase the draft on the team.

My invention possesses other advantages, and will be hereinafter'fullydescribed and claimed. 1

In the accompanying drawings, in which the same letters and numerals ofreference indicate corresponding parts in the several views, Figure 1 isa perspective view of my invention. Fig; 2 is a vertical sectional viewtaken on line as 00, Fig. 1. Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are detail views on anenlarged scale. Fig. 6 is a top plan view hereinafter described.

Referring to the several parts by letters and numerals of reference, thepulverizer is formed, when of the size here shown, with two side and onecentral runner, 3, 3, 3, which are usually two inches thick by fourinches in width or depth; and to these runners are bolted the crosspieces B, A, and T, as hereinafter described in detail. The fronttransverse beam or knife bar, B, which is four by four inches, isrecessed at b at the under side of its ends and center, above the threerunners, to receive the adjusting blocks 2, which are arranged one uponthe other as shown, under said recessed points of the knife Patent No.539,153, dated May 14, 1895.

Serial No. 520,406. (No model.)

bar, which is adj ustably secured in position by screw bolts 1) runningdown through it and the adjusting blocks into the runners. In the frontof the knife bar B are formed the vertical slots B in which fit theshanks O of the series of front blades or teeth, 0. These blades, one ofwhich is shown in detail on an enlarged scale in Fig. 5, are formed eachwith a straight or vertical shank, O, and With the rear shoulder O andupper front locking shoulder 0 the blade then curving back as it extendsdownward, with its front edge beveled and sharpened. The upper end, 0 ofthe stem'of the blade is bent over and stands at right angles to saidstem. The blades are placed in position by inserting their stems in theslots B of the knife bar, with the rear shoulder 0 bearing against theunder side of said bar .while the right angled upper end 0 of the stemfits closely against the upper side of the knife bar, when the retainingbar B'is placed in its position against the front of the knife 7 bar andthere secured by horizontal screw bolts, b runninginto the knife bar.The front shoulders O of the blades bear against the under side of theretaining bar, which closes the front of the slots B and it-will be seenthat by this construction my novel blades are securely locked and firmlyheld in position without requiring any bolts or other separate retainersfor the several blades, which is a valuable feature of my invention. Theretaining bar is recessed on its under side at b to receive theadjusting blocks 2.

A draft hook, E, is bolted upon the center of the knife beam B, to whichthe team is attached. The adjusting blocks 2, under the knife bar B, arepreferably each one inch in thickness, and one or both of them can betaken out and placed on top of the bar, thus lowering the teeth orblades 0 one or two inches deeper into the earth when desired.

The rear knife bar A, its removable knives or blades D, and frontretaining bar A, are the same in construction as the corresponding partsof the front knife bar, blades, and retaining bar, and therefore neednot be described in detail, except that the teeth are smnewhat smallerand-shorter. The runners 3 arealso recessed at a, to receive the bar A;

and the adjusting blocks 2 which are shown secured upon the top of thebar by the screw bolts can be placed under the knife bar to raise itsteeth out of the ground one inch when the clods are very dry and hardand it is necessary to load the pulverizer very heavily to crush them.

The rocks or weights with which the pulverizer is loaded are placed uponthe inclined boards '7, and rest against the front of the cross bar T ofthe crusher at the rear of the pulverizer, which part is constructed asfol- 1ows:-T indicates a cross beam, two by four inches, which is boltedin recesses tin the under side of the runners at the point shown, lyingflush in said recesses. The smoothing board 4 is bolted to the underside of the runners and beam T, and the inclined boards, 7, 7, are heldand braced in position in front of the beam T by the cleats 1, betweenwhich their ends fit so that they can be readily removed by withdrawingthe bolts 8, to replace them with new ones when they have become wornout through long use.

It will now be seen that in operation, as the pulverizer is drawnforward, the series of front blades 0 will first cut into the ground;the lower and rear series, D, of blades will penetrate still deeper;theinclined crushing boards 7, 7, will reduce the size of the clods, asthe lower inclined surface of said boards ride over them; while the rearsmoothing board 4 will mash the small clods and smooth the land.

In Fig. 6 1 have shown three of the barrows shown in Fig. 1 arrangedside by side, but made of one-half the Width of the single pulverizer,and therefore requiring only two of the runners 3; these three narrowbarrows being hooked to a long cross-bar W, which is provided with twosingle-trees Y, Y; the whole being so arranged that it is especiallyadapted for preparing the beds of cotton lands, or covering three rowsof cotton at a time, the two horses walking between the rows, on eachside of the middle row, while the three narrow pulverizers run over thethree beds or rows as shown in said view.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, the construction, operation, and great practicaladvantages of my land pulverizer will be readily understood. It will beseen that it is exceedingly effective in its operation; that it isdevoid of all complicated parts; that the teeth or blades can beadjusted to regulate the depth to'which they will enter the earth,simultaneously, by raising or lowering the knife bars; that by raisingthe knife bars when it is necessary to weight the pulverizer heavily tocrush very dry and hard clods, that the knives will not enter the earthtoo deeply when the pulverizer is so weighted,and the draft on the teamwill consequently not be unduly increased. The arrangement shown in Fig.6 will prepare the beds or cover the rows very rapidly and effectively.The blades, with the aid of the retaining bars B and A practically lockthemselves in position, and can be readily removed when broken or wornout, or to sharpen them.

The pulverizer can be made of any width or length desired, and with anynumber of teeth.

My new and improved pulverizer will effectually pulverize the soil, doesnot choke on trashy land, and where trash or straw has been plowed underit will not pull it out nor brush it on top in the way.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is-

1. In a land pulverizer, the combination of a transverse beam formedwith the series of vertical edge slots, the cutting blades formed eachwith the stem having the right-angled upper end, the frontlockingshoulder, the roar shoulder, and the inclined blade formed with thebeveled front edge, and the removable retaining bar; substantially asset forth.

2. A land pulverizer comprising the runners, separately adjustabletransverse knife bars carrying series of cutting blades the inclinedcrushing boards, and the horizontal smoothing board; substantially asset forth.

3. Aland pulverizer comprising the runners, the transverse knife barscarrying the series of cutting blades, the adjusting blocks removablysecured upon the runners beneath the knife bars, the inclined crushingboards, and the horizontal smoothing board; substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

BENJAMIN A. THOMAS.

Witnesses:

A. J. WARDEN, I. E. PRICE.

